KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Singapore and Vietnam remain the only South-east Asian countries to carry out executions, non-governmental human rights organisation Amnesty International Malaysia revealed in its 2025 global report today.
Revealing the global death penalty trends, the report highlights a significant rise in executions in Singapore, which nearly doubled from nine in 2024 to 17 in 2025.
Of the 17 executions, 15 were for drug‑related offences.
Among those executed in Singapore were five Malaysians, including Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, who was sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking 51.84 grammes of heroin at Woodlands Checkpoint in 2014.
He was executed on October 8, 2025.
In contrast, Vietnam has taken steps towards reducing the scope of the death penalty, abolishing it for eight offences, including drug transportation.
The country has also expanded pathways for commutation, marking a significant shift in regional attitudes towards capital punishment.
However, the report highlights Vietnam’s continued concealment of execution records, treating this information as a state secret despite recent legal amendments.
Amnesty International recorded a total of 138 death sentences in Vietnam, 100 of which were for drug-related offences. This figure included three women and four foreign nationals.
Presenting the findings, Amnesty International Malaysia spokesman Diya Shesshsan Balakrishnan emphasised the urgent need for Malaysian authorities to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in the region.
“The surge in executions globally, alongside the continued use of the death penalty in Singapore, underscores the need for Malaysia to reject this punishment and take the lead in abolishing it within Asean, particularly for Malaysians facing execution in neighbouring countries,” he said.
The report also shows progress within Malaysia, where courts imposed 15 new death sentences in 2025, a notable reduction from the 24 issued in 2024 and significantly lower than the 38 recorded in 2023.
On a global scale, executions surged to 2,707 in 2025, the highest recorded by Amnesty International in over four decades.
Nonetheless, only 17 countries, including China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the USA, North Korea, Iraq, and Egypt, carried out these executions.
Date: 18 May, 2026 2:04 pm
Source: Malay Mail
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